Bathia_Mapes:FirstNationalBastard: DVDs have already been announced for late January.

You sure can't watch Downton Abbey on PBS in the US. They do a worse job with the show than BBC America did with Doctor Who last season.

/and who didn't know that Harriet Jones, Prime Minister, was on the show?

Series 1 & 2 are already on DVD (got them both from local library). Series 1 is also available for streaming on Netflix.

Yeah, I picked 'em up earlier this year after making sure they were unedited.

PBS does a hell of a job with the DVD releases... they just can't do the Masterpiece broadcasts worth a damn. They're PBS... They don't need to edit shows or conform to a rigid schedule the way a commercial network like BBC America does.

/ I wonder if Gillian Anderson in the show would have made it even more popular among sci-fi fanboys?

FirstNationalBastard:Bathia_Mapes: FirstNationalBastard: DVDs have already been announced for late January.

You sure can't watch Downton Abbey on PBS in the US. They do a worse job with the show than BBC America did with Doctor Who last season.

/and who didn't know that Harriet Jones, Prime Minister, was on the show?

Series 1 & 2 are already on DVD (got them both from local library). Series 1 is also available for streaming on Netflix.

Yeah, I picked 'em up earlier this year after making sure they were unedited.

PBS does a hell of a job with the DVD releases... they just can't do the Masterpiece broadcasts worth a damn. They're PBS... They don't need to edit shows or conform to a rigid schedule the way a commercial network like BBC America does.

/ I wonder if Gillian Anderson in the show would have made it even more popular among sci-fi fanboys?

Doubtful. There are just too many other elements that would make it unappealing to your average sci-fix fanboy.

On the other hand, if you were a fan of "Upstairs, Downstairs" then "Downton Abbey should be equally appealing.

I just rewatched the first two series last week and here's what I want to know:

Is Downtown Abbey a sort of reverse TARDIS? Because the house is huge on the outside, but only seems to have a small number of rooms inside.

On the main floor, there's an entrance hall, dining room, library and "small library" (which is really just the end of the main library). When it's turned into a hospital, the characters biatch that there's no room for them, end up making a sitting room out of the small library using screens and even talk about sleeping in their dressing room (as they're being forced out of the main bedroom). Yet, based on the outside of the house, it's got to be 30,000-50,000 s ft, easily, just for the main living space.

Just finishing up season one of Downton on DVD. I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as i have.

My mom is a major fan of Mystery and Masterpiece Theatre on PBS. Grew up watching Allister Cook open the MP shows. I expected Downton to be some dry and boring show but i'm pleasantly surprised! i recommend watching it if you haven't.

I just spent the last week watching seasons 1 and 2. The characters are quite interesting, all of them. I know the show wanted me to hate O'Brien and Thomas but I actually ended up not liking Lady Grantham herself. Daisy's constant "I didn't really like William that way" grew tiresome as well. But overall all the character arcs were good. Matthew of course being my favorite.

Dwight_Yeast:I just rewatched the first two series last week and here's what I want to know:

Is Downtown Abbey a sort of reverse TARDIS? Because the house is huge on the outside, but only seems to have a small number of rooms inside.

On the main floor, there's an entrance hall, dining room, library and "small library" (which is really just the end of the main library). When it's turned into a hospital, the characters biatch that there's no room for them, end up making a sitting room out of the small library using screens and even talk about sleeping in their dressing room (as they're being forced out of the main bedroom). Yet, based on the outside of the house, it's got to be 30,000-50,000 s ft, easily, just for the main living space.

Dwight_Yeast:I just rewatched the first two series last week and here's what I want to know:

Is Downtown Abbey a sort of reverse TARDIS? Because the house is huge on the outside, but only seems to have a small number of rooms inside.

On the main floor, there's an entrance hall, dining room, library and "small library" (which is really just the end of the main library). When it's turned into a hospital, the characters biatch that there's no room for them, end up making a sitting room out of the small library using screens and even talk about sleeping in their dressing room (as they're being forced out of the main bedroom). Yet, based on the outside of the house, it's got to be 30,000-50,000 s ft, easily, just for the main living space.

Thoughts?

/yes, this is really annoying me//huge architecture geek

English manor houses had interior walls sometimes up to sixty feet thick. This is of course, where they kept the disfigured inbred children. And also their Magna Mater cult chambers.

/Did a lot of research on this when investigating my family tree (the Jermyns).

theurge14:I just spent the last week watching seasons 1 and 2. The characters are quite interesting, all of them. I know the show wanted me to hate O'Brien and Thomas but I actually ended up not liking Lady Grantham herself. Daisy's constant "I didn't really like William that way" grew tiresome as well. But overall all the character arcs were good. Matthew of course being my favorite.

I spent a week at my parents' house 2 weeks ago and noticed that they had both seasons of it on their shelf. Asked mom what she thought only to learn they didn't watch it with. Well, I couldn't allow them to at least not watch the pilot so they could at least get into it. Then I found myself over a good portion of my vacation shot gunning a show I had already seen with my parents because it was like crack to them.

The "upstairs" interior are shot on location at Highclere Castle, which is the same building used for exteriors. Servents' quarters and kitchen are sets at Pinewood Studios. I don't know where they're shooting the bedrooms.

Here's the actual ground floor plan of Highclere:

They have used the sitting room as well, but they haven't used a number of other rooms, as you can see. They really should use the Study, as that would have been the most important room in the house. Instead, Lord Grantham weirdly has a desk in the corner of the library instead.

KatjaMouse:Is that room beyond the Entrance Hall supposed to be the "Salon" as opposed to the "Saloon"?

It's labeled correctly. Apparently, a "saloon" in this case is the "center room of a series of state rooms", per the Wiki. It's the grandest room in the house, that two-story space with the skylight and all the arches. They've shown the family gathered there before dinner, but not enjoying cocktails, as that fashion didn't arrive until the mid-1920s in England (they actually had a guest point this out in one episode).

I don't know what the connection between this sort of saloon and the bar type is.

Dwight_Yeast:It's labeled correctly. Apparently, a "saloon" in this case is the "center room of a series of state rooms", per the Wiki. It's the grandest room in the house, that two-story space with the skylight and all the arches. They've shown the family gathered there before dinner, but not enjoying cocktails, as that fashion didn't arrive until the mid-1920s in England (they actually had a guest point this out in one episode).

I don't know what the connection between this sort of saloon and the bar type is.

Well that makes sense. And when the room or that type of room is referred to in the show or other media they pronounce it the way we would say "salon". Also, I think it may have either been the Turk or the Duke in the first couple of episodes who made the cocktails reference in season 1.

I find it more geeky to discover that the actor who plays Mr. Carson the butler is from Harrogate, which apparently is in North Yorkshore and in the same borough as the city of Ripon, which in the show is the area where the fictitious Downton Abbey is located. So I suppose for him on the show he's just pretending to be at home. In 1920 of course.

whizbangthedirtfarmer:2) Is DA really worth watching? I keep going back and forth, but it sounds very much like a soap opera where the folks have British accents. Does it have some sort of depth I'm not aware of?

It's a soap with lots of British gender and class issues thrown in (and generally handled very well). Plus, pretty costumes and set design.

whizbangthedirtfarmer:2) Is DA really worth watching? I keep going back and forth, but it sounds very much like a soap opera where the folks have British accents. Does it have some sort of depth I'm not aware of?

It's pure dramatic fluff but fantastic to look at. It's not too far off to call it Fancy Entourage.

KatjaMouse:whizbangthedirtfarmer: 2) Is DA really worth watching? I keep going back and forth, but it sounds very much like a soap opera where the folks have British accents. Does it have some sort of depth I'm not aware of?

It's pure dramatic fluff but fantastic to look at. It's not too far off to call it Fancy Entourage.

Meh. So it sounds a bit like Mad Men, which I managed to get two episodes into before barely resisting the urge to toss the disc out the window.

whizbangthedirtfarmer:KatjaMouse: whizbangthedirtfarmer: 2) Is DA really worth watching? I keep going back and forth, but it sounds very much like a soap opera where the folks have British accents. Does it have some sort of depth I'm not aware of?

It's pure dramatic fluff but fantastic to look at. It's not too far off to call it Fancy Entourage.

Meh. So it sounds a bit like Mad Men, which I managed to get two episodes into before barely resisting the urge to toss the disc out the window.

mark12A:I would have been so happy in the Edwardian Age. Foxhunting, dressing for dinner, the beginnings of the industrial age, the beginning of flight, proper, well controlled, Ladies, confined in corsets...

Corsets were already dropping out of style. And the food began to suck immediately after the start of WWI due to the rations and then never recovering the provincial farm culture. So awesome couple of decades... and then immediate sucking. And then getting bombed by Nazis.

mark12A:I would have been so happy in the Edwardian Age. Foxhunting, dressing for dinner, the beginnings of the industrial age, the beginning of flight, proper, well controlled, Ladies, confined in corsets...

Only if you were born to the right family. I get the feeling that for the rest of them it kinda sucked.

Virtual Pariah:mark12A: I would have been so happy in the Edwardian Age. Foxhunting, dressing for dinner, the beginnings of the industrial age, the beginning of flight, proper, well controlled, Ladies, confined in corsets...

Only if you were born to the right family. I get the feeling that for the rest of them it kinda sucked.

Indeed. Watch "Upstairs, Downstairs", also from Masterpiece Theatre. It's set in the Edwardian Age as well and the servants worked long hours with low pay. Rose the head house parlourmaid earned £20 a year.

Speaking of said character, portrayed by Jean Marsh:

As Rose, head house parlour maid at 165 Eaton Place (Upstairs, Downstairs)

KatjaMouse:Well that makes sense. And when the room or that type of room is referred to in the show or other media they pronounce it the way we would say "salon". Also, I think it may have either been the Turk or the Duke in the first couple of episodes who made the cocktails reference in season 1.

I think it was actually the Canadian publisher patterned after Lord Beaverbrook. They actually had cocktails in the Saloon on last night's episode.

The British do differentiate between a "salon" and a "saloon" as they use the phrases "Literary salon" and "Beauty Salon". I looked into it more, and public houses used to have at least two rooms: a public bar, which was were the rabble drank and a "saloon" (likely borrowed from the state apartments use) which was nicely decorated, in which women were served, and where the drinks were often more expensive. This tradition has apparently sadly died out.

But I think what happened was here in America, we split the two: a "bar" was that place at the corner your ma sent you to find pa, while a "saloon" was where fancy people drank. There were serious pretensions in the Old West, so any place with velvet wallpaper and brass chandelieers likely styled itself a "saloon".

Completely tangential: when we've uncovered the wrecks of ships carrying goods to the West in the second half of the 19th century, they're always carrying the latest in luxury goods: French champagne, canned oysters and fruit ("should I open a tin of peaches, boss?") crystal glassware, gaudy lamps, etc. There was so much money bouncing around out there that you could get the latest goods from Paris quicker in the middle of nowhere, California, than you could in Philadelphia!